Antec One Hundred Window - A Window to Leetness
The Antec One Hundred Window is a variant of the One Hundred mid-tower enclosure that has a side window to show off your beautiful components inside. And the best part is its neutral look and affordable price tag. Check out our findings.
Introduction
Like an old soldier, Antec is a veteran in the computer chassis market for over 25 years. With its wealth of design and manufacturing experience accrued over the years, Antec has offered rig builders quality casings that are fit for a purpose, reliable in build and high in aesthetic value. Case in point: Antec has enclosures for performance users, gamers, HTPC builders, and even corporate system integrators. But Antec doesn't do casings only; they also make and sell accessories such as power supplies, CPU coolers, notebook coolers, and thermal compound.
The One Hundred is a mid-tower enclosure targeted at gamers looking for a good case but aren't willing to break the bank for it. The One Hundred Window, as the name suggests, is different from the standard One Hundred case in that it comes with a side window (and this is the model that's more readily available in this region). What do you need that for? Why, to show off your components of course!
Have a fancy water cooling system, cold cathode fans, and LED light sticks in your casing? Why not have a window to show them off?
It has a fully perforated front facade for maximum air flow.
You can check out the specifications via the specs tab above or you can let the pictures speak for themselves after the jump. At this juncture, we would like to bring in a comparisons with an earlier casing that we've reviewed from Antec - their Two Hundred casing. It too is a casing oriented for the budget gamers, but its kind of weird (naming-wise) that the One Hundred is actually newer and better than the Two Hundred in a few aspects. From its simplified and subtle design to its slightly taller and deeper design, the One Hundred has a more practical appeal. And it improves on a few finer aspects too, which we'll share over the next couple of pages. Cooling and drive bay options are however almost identical.
Exterior Design
The 6.9kg One Hundred Window has side panels which have a finish that appears glossy but actually feels matte to touch. Under strong lighting however, fingerprints are noticeable (as you might have noticed from our earlier picture. Its full wire mesh front allows for maximum airflow, but it's also acts as a dust trap at the same time. While you would have to wipe it clean occasionally to improve internal airflow, at least it reduces the need to maintain the individual fans. There's always two sides to the use of these fine front mesh facades. An improvement over the older Two Hundred casing is the improved front I/O panel is laid out in a straightforward fashion and is clearer to use. While it sports quad USB ports, they are still 2.0 compliant only and there is no reset button.
The crown of the casing sit the power switch, audio jacks and four USB 2.0 ports. The area behind with the Antec logo is what the company calls an accessory tray - ideal to place external HDDs or other such gadgets or trinkets.
At the top and towards the back of the case, we see a 140mm TwoCool fan, one of the two cooling fans that comes with the enclosure.This is also standard fare on the Two Hundred casing.
The rear cooling option is the other 120mm TwoCool fan. There are two switches for controlling the speeds of both fans. We had to pry off the port cut-outs from the back panel; fortunately, they came off clean and there were no small nasty steel stubs left behind. Rubber grommets to route your water cooling tubes are not a standard-fare but the casing does have relevant perforations to a cater to those needs too.
Here's a shot of the fan switches up close. The left one controls the top 140mm fan, while the right serves the rear 120mm fan.
Interior Design
After sliding off the side panel, we found the bag of screws/plastic feet and a piece of warranty information. We were half expecting to find an installation guide, but we didn't. This is not a major impediment as we could easily locate the PDF version of it from Antec's website. On the base of the motherboard tray, you'll find two rudimentary cut-outs in the vertical and horizontal orientations for cable routing. There are also two reusable cable ties to corral up those wild tangles of wires. As we started our installation of the motherboard, we had to bring out our screwdriver as this is unfortunately not a tool-free chassis.
A matte black finish for its interior with cut-outs for rudimentary cable management and easy installation of aftermarket CPU coolers. Remember, the Antec One Hundred has 11 drive bays (three external 5.25-inch bays, one external 3.5-inch bay, six internal 3.5-inch bays and one 2.5-inch internal drive bay).
Besides the supplied top and rear case fans, you can install two more 120mm fans on the front panel for intake of fresh air and cooling the hard drives. As shown in this photo, we mounted some of our spare fans for trials. Just note that these front fans are your own optional purchase options.
We had to refer to the online manual to take the guesswork out of mounting the two optional front 120mm fans. Usually this a straightforward affair, but it wasn't so on the One Hundred. We also had doubts about cleaning the fan filters held in place by pliable wire mesh strips as they seem fragile and may break off after repeated bending in the long run.
Detached front panel: Take note of the small bits of pliable wire mesh holding the washable filters in place.
For those worried about space, we are happy to report that the One Hundred Window is sufficiently spacious for its range of budget casings as it can accommodate two 11-inch graphics cards (such as the older AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2 we had on hand, which is about the size of current mid-range graphics cards) without having to sacrifice any 3.5-inch drive bays. We had to perform the usual drill of removing the back expansion slot plates for the graphics card installation. Like the Two Hundred case, once the slot covers are pried out, you don't have anything to cover them with again. These are traits typical of budget casings, but we have actually seen better from our previous bout of budget casing comparisons.
Installation of almost anything will require a screwdriver and screws. It's nice to note that there are enough gaps to tuck cables away - well at least for a case which isn't full to the brim yet.
The installation of the bottom-mounted PSU (power supply unit) took a bit of guesswork as there was no wire mesh opening at the bottom of the chassis. While attempting to install the PSU, we noticed that the only way to mount it was by removing the PSU's own back panel screws. Yes, you read correct. While we've seen several casings come and go in our lab, we really can't recall when we had to dismantle the PSU's own rear screws to align the PSU in place and fasten it to the chassis with the same set of screws removed earlier. Even so, the holes on the back panel of the PSU were a little misaligned against the chassis counterpart; the screws were refastened with force after the PSU was in place. And note that in its final rest position, the PSU's fan faced up into the case.
Take heed: Installing the PSU requires some elbow grease and brute strength to get it in place.
Finally, tool-free installation of the rubber grommets for your SSD (solid state drive).
So far, the One Hundred case has some similarities to the Two Hundred model internally like the need for a screwdriver, but still makes minor improvements like using a matte black interior for better appearances, more cut-outs for cable routing and a tad more spacious interior. Sans a few installation quirks, most people would likely prefer this newcomer to the Two Hundred.
Inexpensive Show Off
The Antec One Hundred Window is a nondescript chassis with a simple layout that is pleasing to the eye. It's very roomy for a budget casing and overall build quality is good. The black-painted interior was aesthetically pleasing and the transparent side window will allow the system builder to exhibit his components in black light puppetry style. Installation of key components was reasonable but we would have really preferred a tool-free experience. One item of discomfiture was the forced alignment of the power supply as the screw holes were not lined up properly. The fan speed controller is a nice touch, but it would be nice if it could control additional fans. On the other hand, we are disappointed by the lack of USB 3.0 support.
Considering the very affordable S$98 price tag, there's not much to fault the Antec One Hundred Window, but it had potential to be better. For now, it's packed with essential features.
There are another two manifestations of the One Hundred chassis. The Antec One Hundred Lite retails for S$79. It has two USB 2.0 ports and for cooling options, a single top 140mm TwoCool exhaust fan, compared to the more generous offerings of quad USB ports, one rear 120mm exhaust fan and one 140mm top exhaust fan of the S$98 One Hundred Window. The final member of the family is literally named One Hundred as its side panel is not fitted with a transparent window. It has identical cooling options of the One Hundred Window.
In summary, it's a decent basic case that has a design appeal for the mass DIY market, with essential features. There is room for improvement, but at least it's priced reasonably.
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.